Outlet Controlled by Temp and Garage Door Sensor

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

Hello everyone,
We just built our house and I am starting to get into HA. One thing recently I was working on and cannot figure out is out to control an outlet to turn on a heater fan in my garage but only if the garage door is closed. I have a hanging Hydronic heater and the fan just has a plug cord that I have plugged into a Leviton DZPA1-2BW plug in outlet. I also have a smartthings mulit-sensor, that is connected to trip when the garage door is open. I would like the heater to kick on at 55Ā°, but only if the door is closed. Is there a app that would allow this?

Thanks in advance,
Henry

2

As with all things SmartThings, there is more than one way to accomplish this. You could use a Webcore piston, SmartRules is an app for IOS that can handle this, or if you want to create a home mode specific to the garage door being closed you could even use the SmartLighting app to accomplish this.

3

I wrote a custom smartapp for a conservatory heater that might be what you need.
It turns on a heater if temp drops to a preconfigured level and switches off above. (Uses a multisensor for temp reading)
It will only heat if a contact (on a window) is closed
You are welcome to try it if you would like.

Let me know Nd Iā€™ll post a link to the code

4

I would definitely like to see it, if you can share!

5

Thanks I will give this a shot.

6

You can find it here:

https://github.com/CobraVmax/SmartThings/tree/master/smartapps/cobra/temperature-controlled-switch.src

Andā€¦ in case you have not done it beforeā€¦

7

Thanks Cobra, I just installed it and will check it out. One question on this though. I see that I can set the temp (in my case 50Ā°F), but what is the swing? Meaning will it turn on at 50 and heat to 52 and shut off, or will it drop to 48 and turn on until 50 and shut off? I took a quick look in the code and didnā€™t see a set value.

Thanks again and happy holidays!

8

@navygm12
It is configured so that if the temp drops below 50 (in your case) then the heater will switch on.
When the temp is reported to be 50 or above then the switch will turn off.
Usually most temp sensors donā€™t report until a change of 1 degree or so has been recorded.
So in your case I would expect the switch to be on at 49 and off at 50; thereby keeping the temp at around 49/50 degrees.
Obviously, opening the door may cause the temp to drop further as the switch would be disabled at any temp with the door open.
One thing to note:
If the temp was 50 or above when the door opened then the door is closed, the switch will not turn back on again until the temp sensor reports below 50 again.

9

Got it, makes sense! It has been working great! I do notice that even if the temp is below 50 and the door closes there is a delay before the switch turns on, maybe a couple minutes? Definitely not an issue, just something I have noticed, but havenā€™t looked much into it. Thanks again! Also, do you take donations?

1 Like
10

Henry
Actually the app waits for the temperature sensor to report again before it can do anything (as it doesnā€™t know what to do until it has this reading) so yes probably any temp would need to be ā€˜refreshedā€™ before switching on/off again.
Iā€™m really glad it works for you ok.
Thanks for the offer of a donation, see the header in the code for details

Andy

11

I have seen many variations of thisā€¦


but I have not found one with 2 probes (or 1 probe plus local weather awareness).

I only want the outlet to turn on if the outside temperature is 5 (or more) degrees lower than the temperature inside my garage.